Take part to support street Children

Save Life Make Difference 

Bujumbura Bururndi 

savelifemakediffrence@gmail.com

71452395

Project re[port 

Where do you want us to go? My father is no longer with me, and my mother remarried into another family. And since then, I went down to Bujumbura, and I haven’t had any work. And to survive, I started begging. I have nowhere to go,” confides a young street child encountered not far from the Saint-Michel Catholic church, in Mukaza commune, in the heart of Bujumbura.

After being arrested during the roundups of beggars and taken to his native province in the north of the country, he is back in Bujumbura.

“For me, it’s impossible to stay there. Because, to survive, you have to take up the hoe and cultivate the land. And I have never practiced this profession. And there you go, I came back to beg.

At least here, a person can leave you 1000 BIF, 2000 BIF or even 4000 BIF" (one dollar is equivalent to 2076 Burundian francs), he tells us.

His case is not isolated. Thimothée, 17, had also been arrested and taken back to the interior of the country.

Today, he keeps an eye on the police so as not to end up in their hands: "In fact, usually, we would stand in front of a bank, a microfinance, at the entrance to markets, but it was very easy for the police to spot us because we operated in groups. Today, we work alone".

An orphan, he says he has no other way to survive: "After my parents died, my uncles sold our property. When I tried to file a complaint, I received death threats.

And I fled my region to Bujumbura. I couldn't continue living there."

He acknowledges that begging is risky. "There are risks but we don't really have a choice.

If I manage to have another occupation, I would be happy," he admits, noting that on the street, they are exposed, among other things, to physical violence and drug use.

- Physical disability at the base

Among the street children, some live with a physical disability. This often attracts the compassion of passers-by. "How can I live without begging? How can I work in this state? I live thanks to charitable spirits," confides Edson, a street child, encountered on Avenue de la Mission. He is only 13 years old.

On this artery lined with large Indian and other Asian shops, it is in front of a ready-to-wear store that this one-armed child settles down. "I don't have any family who could take care of me," he admits. And to get to the city center, it's his 16-year-old big brother, also a street kid, who carries him on his back.

With the recent police raids, these street kids are very wary of journalists. While watching for the slightest movement of police officers in the area, he finally agrees to confide, saying that he was born with this disability. And unfortunately, his parents are dead.

"Since we were forced to provide for our own needs, we had no choice but to go begging," says Edson's big brother. Thanks to begging, he says that they manage to have food and pay for a small room in Kinama, north of Bujumbura.

Referring to the police raids to chase children off the streets, he believes that it is first important to tackle the causes. "They threaten to send us back to our home provinces. But we are natives of Bujumbura. Where are they going to send us? Let them find us other means of survival. That could work," he says.

He acknowledges, however, that "begging is not an honorable profession" and that passers-by have become increasingly reluctant to put their hands in their pockets: "With this threat from the government to punish those who give, some people are reluctant. Instead of giving you money, they offer to do certain tasks like laundry, cleaning and they pay you afterwards."

It should be noted that this operation to remove beggars from the streets concerns all beggars without distinction, children or adults.

- Addressing the causes first

For associations campaigning for children's rights, there had to be prerequisites for the success of the operation to remove child beggars from the streets. "It is not enough to just remove them from the streets, we must also try to understand why they are on the streets," comments OLIVIER , president of the NGO Save Life Make difference (SALIMADI).

Approached by the Anadolu Agency, he indicates that there are several causes that push these children onto the streets. "Poverty, family abandonment, abuse of the extended family in the case of orphans, dispossession of property, etc.," he lists, proposing the establishment of a child protection committee at the municipal level and a mapping of voluntary foster families.

Our target was 20k us dollars but we have  $441 raised of $20,000 goal

 Save life make difference 

Bujumbura Bururndi

09/03/2025

Bujum ura 

09/03/2025